Shuttle Pushes First PicoBTX PC Barebone into Retail

The first ever picoBTX form-factor PC from Shuttle Computer, a top maker of small form-factor PC barebones, emerged for sale during the weekend in Tokyo, Japan. While this is not the first ever BTX form-factor personal computer in retail, this is the first BTX product oriented on do-it-yourself (DIY) market.

Shuttle’s XPC SB86i small form-factor computer barebone is based on Intel’s i915G core-logic that supports Intel’s Pentium 4 and Celeron processors with 533MHz and 800MHz processor system bus. The system can install a PCI Express x16 graphics card, a PCI add-in card and up to 2GB of dual-channel PC3200 DDR memory. The chassis allow installing one 5.25” optical drive and two 3.5” hard disk drives to utilize Intel’s Matrix RAID capabilities. The XPC SB86i also sports a number of multimedia enhancements, such as 8-channel Intel’s high-definition audio, Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0, FireWire and 8-in-1 card reader.

Shuttle SB86i, photo by Akiba PC Hotline

While the XPC SB86i is not as small as some of Shuttle’s SFF systems, it can run Intel’s high-end processors, including the latest Intel Pentium 4 570J (3.80GHz), without the need to be equipped with multiple of fans and a relatively expensive thermal-dissipation system based on heat-pipes, thanks to picoBTX design.

BTX layout allows for more room for processor power delivery routing and reduces routing complexity for the memory controller to memory from the I/O controller to rear panel I/O. The thermal benefits provided to the processor voltage regulation allows for designs with fewer components.